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KNOWN AS CHARM CITY, BALTIMORE EXPECTS THE REVITALIZATION OF SOME city neighborhoods will spur continued economic growth in the region in the coming years, with residential, commercial and biotech development helping to reshape the landscape. Baltimore already has a robust local economy. In January, its unemployment rate dipped to 3.6 percent, its lowest level since March 2001, and several projects on the horizon should help keep the local economy humming.
Construction of a Ritz-Carlton Residences along 5.6 acres of Baltimore's Inner Harbor is underway and scheduled for completion by mid-2007. The complex will include 175 luxury condos going for $1 million to $5 million.
The Baltimore Harbor, a popular destination for both tourists and locals, continues to attract other residential projects, with estimates ranging as high as 3,000 units planned for the waterfront area. A $305 million, publicly owned Baltimore Convention Center Headquarters/hotel project is underway, and a 20-story, 756-room Hilton being constructed adjacent to the convention center will become Baltimore's largest hotel when it opens in August 2008.
A major shipping hub, Baltimore is among the six U.S. ports caught up in the recent controversy regarding a United Arab Emirates company taking over operations.
Beyond the city's vast ports, biotech parks have sprouted up around the University of Maryland campuses in the city, and a new Life Sciences and Technology Park is planned for construction near Johns Hopkins University on Baltimore's east side. The park is the first phase of an $800 million initiative to redevelop an 80-acre swath of the city. The initial phase calls for 1.1 million square feet of bioresearch and office space, 850 residential units, and retail space.
All of this should bode well for the local media, which had an off year in 2005, largely because of a lack of political ad spending. With contested gubernatorial, Senate and House races set for this fall, the market's players can expect a healthy flow of political dollars into their coffers later this year. Baltimore's spot TV market is forecast to have finished '05 with $234 million in gross revenue, a decline of $4.8 million or 2 percent from '04, according to BIA Financial Network. The market is expected to grow 9 percent in '06 to $255 million.
Baltimore is the nation's...